Senior High March Voices compete in the final of the Barnardo’s National Choral Competition

19.03.2024

Tuesday, 5th March saw the Senior High March Voices (all of Year 6) participate in the final of the Barnardo’s National Competition at the prestigious Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

In the autumn term, the girls recorded two challenging songs, ‘J’entends Le Moulin’ by Emily Crocker and ‘The Water Is Wide/Bring Me A Little Water, Sylvie’ by Rollo Dilworth as an entry for the competition. We were notified at the start of January that we were one of just fifteen junior choirs nationwide which had been selected for the final.

After a very early start on the day of the final, the girls arrived by coach at the venue ready for their performance slot.  As the girls walked on to the stage following a brief warm-up, it immediately struck them what a marvellous venue the Symphony Hall was, and the girls certainly gave maximum effort, taking advantage of the amazing acoustics. The first of the two songs was the wonderfully lyrical two-part song, ‘Riversong’, composed by Andy Beck. The girls performed this song confidently and securely demonstrating great dynamic contrast and notably clear diction – especially with the exciting and ambitious three-part ending! The second and final song was the humorous and dynamically challenging two-part song, ‘Whisper!’ by Greg Gilpin. Again, the girls displayed great confidence and composure in what could easily have been an intimidating performing venue and they should feel exceptionally proud of their achievements. Unfortunately, we were not the overall winning choir on the day, but the girls still represented themselves and the school admirably with equally impressive musicality and presentation.

Following on from the competition performance, the girls enjoyed a visit to SeaLife before enjoying a well-earned pizza at a nearby restaurant. The girls returned to the competition venue ready for the evening concert where each choir performed one of their competition songs to a completely packed Symphony Hall. Once again, the girls found the extra reserves of courage to sing amazingly and with great confidence in front of the huge audience, a memory which Mr Hayes, Director of Music, declared would stay with him forever.

Particular thanks go to all of the staff who helped out on the day, and a special mention to Dr Elena Vorotko for her wonderful piano accompanying. Well done to all girls in Year Six and a huge thank-you to Mr Hayes for doing such a wonderful job preparing the girls for the competition.